Eve Poole

Eve Poole

Ian Knox

Dr Eve Poole OBE is an academic and writer who specialises in leadership. She was educated in high schools in Scotland and the US, and has a BA in Theology from Durham, an MBA from Edinburgh, and a PhD in Theology and Capitalism from Cambridge.

She is the author of several books, including Capitalism’s Toxic Assumptions, Buying God, and Leadersmithing, which was Highly Commended in the 2018 Business Book Awards. It was described by Joanna Lumley as ‘inspirational, practical and fascinating,’ and is the subject of a popular TEDx talk.

For 15 years she taught leadership at Ashridge Business School, pioneering a new approach to the accelerated development of leaders, using ground-breaking neurobiological research into how leaders really learn. Leadersmithing is a method of developing leaders that rediscovers the craft of leading and takes seriously the need for leaders to acquire ‘muscle memory’ for leading well under pressure.

In 2022, Eve was the Interim CEO of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Eve was Third Church Estates Commissioner from 2018-2021 with a particular brief for cathedral governance. She was also the first female Chairman of the Board of Governors at Gordonstoun School from 2015-2021. Her early career involved working for the Church Commissioners and for Deloitte Consulting, where she specialised in change management in the Financial Services sector.

Eve lives in Edinburgh and has twin girls. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio Scotland’s Thought for the Day.